ENTERTAINMENT | TRAVEL SECTION Sunday, July 21, 2013
G
Kalamazoo Gazette
Full of flavor: Taste of Kalamazoo on the horizon. PAGE G2
IF YOU GO Black Arts Festival What: The Black Arts & Cultural Center presents the 27th annual Black Arts Festival with children’s activities, music, food and more. When: Thursday-July 28 Where: Bronson Park and Epic Center, 359 S. Kalamazoo Mall Cost: Free, except for Adult Summer White Party on Saturday night ($20) Contact: 269-349-1035, blackartskalamazoo.org
THURSDAY
§ 11 a.m.-4 p.m. — Children’s Day with free hot dogs and drinks, carnival games, face painting, an instrument petting zoo and more at Bronson Park. § 6-10 p.m. — Screening of short film from Kalamazoo’s Danika Essix, followed by the Academy Awards-nominated film, “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” in the Epic Center.
Black Arts Festival
FRIDAY
27th annual event brings four days of cultural activities to Kalamazoo MLIVE.COM FILE
Festivalgoers, above, dance during the 2012 Black Arts Festival at Bronson Park. Below, Shawna “Ama” McCaden wraps a Nigerian Kufi on Kal-El Spencer of Kalamazoo. BY JOHN LIBERTY JLIBERT1@MLIVE.COM
K
ALAMAZOO — Four days of music, art, movies, dancing and more family-friendly activities are ready to roll into town with the Black Arts & Cultural Center’s 27th annual Black Arts Festival. The festival will run Thursday through Sunday at the Epic Center and Bronson Park. The
mostly free event — only the Adult Summer White Party on Saturday night has a charge — will begin with Children’s Day on Thursday. There will be carnival games, face painting, an instrument petting zoo and more. The festival also includes live music, dancing and films, among other festivities. “It’s a great family staycation for the weekend. The economy is getting better, Kalamazoo is getting better, but it’s still expensive to go out,” Black Arts & Cultural Center executive director Sid Ellis said.
Film screening
The first night will also screen the four-time Academy Award-nominated film, “Beasts
of the Southern Wild,” which helped launch then-9-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis to stardom. It will be preceded by a short film from Kalamazoo’s Danika Essix. The festival also will include poetry, art and theater on Friday in the Epic Center starting at 6 p.m.
Fashion and food
Starting at 11 a.m. on Saturday, there will be a fashion show, more family activities and food and entertainment, including headliners HotPoynt with soul singers Jeri Wade and Kakai Clark. The Adult Summer White Party, held from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday in the Epic Center, is the annual fundraiser
for the festival. Ellis said the event, for ages 25 and older, will take place in three rooms. There will be live jazz from Kalamazoo musicians Moni Faith and Yolonda Lavender, as well as card games and DJ Chuck. Admission is $20 in advance. For it’s wrap-up event, the Black Arts Festival will convert Bronson Park into an outdoor church. The day will begin at 11 a.m. with a church service by Pastor James Harris and the congregation of Trenches Community Church. The service will be followed by Christian entertainers from 1 to 6 p.m. For more information on the festival, call 269-349-1035 or go to blackartskalamazoo.org.
§ 6-7 p.m.— Art exhibit in the Gail Sydnor Art Gallery in the Epic Center. § 6-7 p.m.— Poetry reading at the Epic Center. § 7:30 p.m.— A Readers Theatre Performance at the Epic Center.
SATURDAY
§ 11 a.m.-9 p.m. — Family Fun Fest with fashion show, arts and crafts, food, live entertainment and more at Bronson Park. § 9 p.m. — Adult Summer White Party with live music, dancing, card games and more at the Epic Center (ages 25 and older and $20 per person).
SUNDAY
§ 11 a.m. — Gospel in the Park with a church service from Pastor James Harris and Trenches Community Church at Bronson Park. § 1-6 p.m. — Local Christian dancers, musicians and more at Bronson Park.
‘Tarzan’ swings into Augusta’s Barn Theatre BY MARK WEDEL FOR MLIVE.COM
AUGUSTA — The Barn Theatre promises to give families a swinging time with its next musical. Jamey Grisham, as the gorilla-raised human Tarzan, “is going to swing,” director Eric Parker said, but not everyone in “Tarzan” will be making their stage entrance on jungle vines. “In New York, they had a whole elaborate flying rig system, and everybody was hooked up,” Parker said. The Barn is not doing that. “But we do have some rope, some vines,” he said. “Tarzan: The Musical,” based on the 1999 Disney film (which was based on the 1914 Edgar Rice Burroughs novel “Tarzan of the Apes”), ran 2006-07 on Broadway. In spite of music by Phil Collins and a book by David Henry Hwang, it wasn’t a big a hit as other Disneyconverted-for-the-stage shows, such as “The Lion King” or “Beauty and the Beast.” Due to its extravagance and jungle-green color scheme, the New York Times’ Ben Brantley panned it as a “giant, writhing green blob with music ...” “It was kind of a big green
hyperkinetic mess, and the green was so bright that — I watched a couple of videos, and it was hard to see what was going on,” Parker said. With Broadway making bigger and flashier spectacles, “it’s tough” for a theater like the Barn to stage something like “Tarzan,” Parker said. “You get these shows that are all one gigantic multi-milliondollar set piece after another. Trying to focus on what we can do here at the Barn is a particular challenge.” There will be some swinging on a Steven Lee Burright set they call “Ape City,” because it’s reminiscent of “Planet of the Apes” a little bit, Parker said. Michael Wilson Morgan and Garrylee McCormick are working on a hair/costume design that suggests ape-ness, but isn’t a full gorilla suit for the show’s non-humans (Penelope Alex, Patrick Hunter, Josh Meredith). And if you’re arachnophobic, be warned that there will be a giant, articulated spider. For Grisham, looking like one expects Tarzan to look takes more than costuming. He’s been a long-distance runner for a couple years, yet getting in shape “is exhausting,”
IF YOU GO “Tarzan: The Stage Musical” When: Tuesday-Aug. 4. 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays.; 5 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Saturdays; 5 p.m. Sundays Where: Barn Theatre, 13351 W. M-96, Augusta Cost: $35 Contact: 269-731-4121, barntheatre.com
COURTESY
Jamey Grisham plays Tarzan in the Barn Theatre’s “Tarzan: The Stage Musical.”
he said. He’s learning to swing, and choreographing the show’s “vine-ography,” he said. “But the physical stuff is not nearly as bad as singing on your hands and knees.” Before Jane (Hannah Eakin)
teaches Tarzan the ways of being human, Grisham will have to be a knuckle-walker. It’s a challenge “staying in these positions that are very ape-like and grounded, while singing really high A’s, B’s and C’s without being able to support your
body,” he said. “It’s all written in Phil Collins’ range.” “It’s a pretty difficult show to do,” Grisham said. “But it’s got such a good story and a good message ... It’s about the importance of the relationships between parents and children,
and it’s about individualism, and coming-of-age.” Tarzan learns to be a human. Yet he doesn’t forget who raised him. Grisham and Alex sing “You’ll Be In My Heart” as gorilla mother and human son. In rehearsal, at the line, “No matter where I go, you’ll always be my mother,” they have to stop singing because they keep choking up. “Tarzan” is a true family show, he pointed out, with the message that “family is what you make it. And this is also our family here” at the Barn, Grisham said.